According to Partridge it originally (1690) meant a fool, later coming to mean fake or hoax, like Chaplin singing cod Italian in that scene from Modern Times where as the singing waiter he's lost his cuffs with the lyrics. It has nothing to do with the cod of codpiece, meaning pod, bag or husk in ancient Norse or something (there it goes, looked it up 5 minutes ago & forgotten the details already), thus scrotum. Are you guys (sic) all deliberately throwing out these lascivious references just to embarrass reserved Anglo-Saxons like Patrick and me?
Mangle me cod, begorrah!
mj
Creator - A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.
H.L.Mencken
----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Corelis
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 4:20 PM
Subject: Another question (UK)
I've occasionally seen the word "cod" used in books by British writers
as an adjective, apparently, from the context, meaning something like
"gauche" or "camp," though it's hard to tell, and I haven't been able
to find an adjectival use in a dictionary. Can anyone clarify this
use and where it comes from? Thanks.
--
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Jon Corelis http://jcorelis.googlepages.com/joncorelis
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